CP World Report: Muslim School, Argentina, Eritrea, London Olympics

By World Report, The Christian Post in partnership with Crossroads, WEA

May 17, 2012|9:58 am

The Toronto District School Board has suspended the license of a Muslim school that was using teaching materials which denigrated Jews and encouraged boys to keep fit for jihad. The Islamic Shia Study Centre operated the East End Madrassah in a Toronto high school, until an outcry last week that prompted an investigation by the York Region Police hate crimes unit. The Islamic school had been teaching classes on Sundays at David & Mary Thomson Collegiate.

About 50 faculty and staff at a Georgian Christian academic institute are resigning after school officials announced that employees must sign a code of conduct pledge. Known as the "personal lifestyle statement," it states that employees are to refrain from activities including drug use, alcohol, adultery, and homosexuality. The document at Shorter University-- which is part of Georgia Baptist Convention--also calls for active involvement in a Church.

Argentina is the first country to make sex-change operations a legal right. Public and private insurance providers will be mandated to cover such surgeries. The new legislation will also make it legal for a person to change his or her gender on paper without even having a sex change operation. And in another law, the Argentinian senate voted on a "dignified death" law, which gives terminally ill patients and their families more power to make decisions on the termination of the patient's life. But the measure forbids euthanasia outright -- actions that provoke death.

A Norwegian man set himself on fire and tried to break into the trial of Anders Breivik which started a month ago. He was taken to hospital with serious injuries . Anders Breivik admits killing 77 people last july in a shocking Norway massacre but denies criminal responsibility; sayning he did it to protect Europe from immigration. This week, the court has been hearing testimony from some of those injured during Breivik's gun rampage . For some survivors, seeing Breivik in court helped them deal with the terrible memories of last summer.

A vigil will take place outside the Eritrean embassy in London TODAY to protest the regime's treatment of Christians. The vigil is being held to commemorate the tenth anniversary of mass detentions of Eritrean Christians, which began after the government started closing down churches. As many as 3,000 Christians are currently detained in Eritrea without charge or trial, and they are living under inhumane conditions Have you heard about endangered plants: the Corpse flower is one. It blooms for a few days about every three years and it's scheduled to bloom at Botanical Garden in Honolulu. It's expected to draw a lot of spectators who will not only see it, but smell as well……

Churches are being asked to pray during the 70-day Olympic Games torch relay when it gets underway in England this Saturday. The Olympic torch begins its journey at Land's End in Cornwall, south-west England and will tour the length and breadth of the country before arriving at the Olympic Stadium in London on July 27th. The torch will travel through 1,000 English towns, cities and villages. Christian leaders will receive prayers of blessing from churches where the torch has just been and then pass them on to those in the next location. Meanwhile…..

Women's boxing makes its debut as an Olympic event at this summer's Games. And, according to the New York Times, 22-year-old Marlen Esparza from Houston, is the first American female boxer to qualify for the London Olympics. While men have 10 weight divisions, there are only three for women.